Consulting HAL

Juan Enriquez's TED talk begins by talking about the economy. To be honest, I'm a little lost here. What I do know is that we are in a bad place.Retiring later, capping, cutting, some other stuff.

Next is the 'bigger wave', technology. The main points in this area are engineering ourselves, engineering tissues, and robots. Biology Radioshack, controllable cells.Wintergreens and bananas? Wine elements in beer, cancer fighting beer. We can grow body parts ,like bladders, ears, and teeth. The power of stem cells!

Boston Dynamics Big Dog is one robot that I've seen earlier. It's a little spooky when it moves, but it's still cool. Gecko and fly bots. Cyborgs are on the way too. The disabled become able and then superhuman. Homo superior, or as Prof. Enriquez says, Homo evolus.

Should mankind be allowed to evolve themselves and other species? That sounds like a recipe for disaster in my opinion. I've read and watched enough sci-fi stories to know that. We would probably be removing the best parts of ourselves, perhaps what makes us all human in the first place.

Sorry for my disjointed thoughts for most of this post, it's hard to type and watch a video at the same time. Multitasking is difficult when one is intensely researching.